Police: Stockholm attacker wore explosives

[December 13, 2010]  STOCKHOLM (AP) -- A man who died in one of two explosions in the Swedish capital had explosives strapped to his body and in his backpack, and had sent threats referring to "jihad" in an e-mail shortly before his death, a prosecutor said Monday

Tomas Lindstrand said police are "98 percent" certain the suicide bomber was a 28-year-old Swedish citizen, Taimour Abdulwahab, who also lived several years in Britain.

Abdulwahab had his roots in the Middle East and had been a Swedish citizen since 1992. He was the registered owner of the car that exploded in Stockholm shortly before the suicide blast Saturday that also wounded two people.

He said the e-mail threats that were sent to security police and Swedish news agency TT before the blasts have been linked to Abdulwahab's cell phone.

Abdulwahab had explosives strapped to his body and in a backpack, Lindstrand said. He also said he carried "something that looked like a pressure-cooker."

A Facebook account that appeared to belong to Abdulwahab showed he previously studied at the University of Bedfordshire in Luton. On Sunday, British police raided a property in Bedfordshire, but didn't make any arrests.

On his account he also posted comments against Shiites, whom Sunni Muslims consider heretics.

He also posted a link to a video showing a dying man, maybe injured in Chechnya, praying to God to die as martyr.

Abdulwahab commented on the video, writing: "Taimour likes Abu Dujana, the death of a shaheed (martyr)."

The audio file sent in an e-mail to the security police and Swedish news agency TT shortly before the blast referred to jihad, Sweden's military presence in Afghanistan and an image by a Swedish artist that depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog, enraging many Muslims.

Because of the country's silence toward all this, "so will your children, daughters, brothers and sisters die, like our brothers, sister and children die," a man's voice said in the file, submitted to The Associated Press by TT.

"Now the Islamic state has been created. We now exist here in Europe and in Sweden. We are a reality," he said. "I don't want to say more about this. Our actions will speak for themselves."

On Monday, two police officers stood outside a semidetached house in Luton thought to be associated with the suspected bomber.

Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted a neighbor in Luton as saying he last saw the suspect two and a half weeks ago.

"I used to see him around often. He didn't say much but seemed nice. I used to see him walking with his kids," taxi driver Tahir Hussain, 33, was quoted as saying. "I was shocked when I heard what happened because I never thought he could do such a thing."

Luton, a town of 200,000 about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of London, has a large Muslim community and has seen tensions rise in recent years.

Last year it was the site of a small but widely covered protest in which a handful of Islamists picketed a homecoming parade for British soldiers returning from Iraq, holding up signs accusing the men of being "butchers" and "baby-killers." It also has been targeted for demonstrations by the English Defense League, a far-right group that claims to oppose Islamic extremism, but which is accused by opponents of being racist and violent.

[Associated Press; By MALIN RISING]

Jill Lawless in London and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.